12 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



separated or resolved into their original elements. In the same 

 way when any wild animal, such as a bird or rabbit, dies in an 

 exposed place, its flesh decays under the influence of rain and 

 wind, so that before long nothing but dry bones is left. Hamlet's 

 wish that this " too too solid flesh would melt " is soon realised 

 after death ; and that active chemical element in the air known as 

 oxygen, in breathing which we live, has a tenfold power over 

 dead matter, slowly causing chemical actions somewhat similar to 

 those that take place in a burning candle, whereby decaying flesh 

 is converted into water-vapour and carbonic acid gas. Thus we 

 see that oxygen not only supports life, but breaks up into simpler 

 forms the unwholesome and dangerous products of decaying 

 matter, thus keeping the atmosphere sweet and pure ; but in 

 time, even the dry bones of the bird or rabbit, though able for 

 a longer period to resist the attacks of the atmosphere, crumble 

 into dust, and serve to fertilise the soil that once supported 

 them. 



Now, if water and air be excluded, it is wonderful how long 

 even the most perishable things may be preserved from this other- 

 wise universal decay. In the Edinburgh museum of antiquities 

 may be seen an old wooden cask of butter that has lain for 

 centuries in peat which substance has a curiously preservative 

 power ; and human bodies have been dug out of Irish peat with 

 the flesh well preserved, which, from the nature of the costume 

 worn by the person, we can tell to be very ancient. Meat packed 

 in tins, so as to be entirely excluded from the air, may be kept a 

 very long time, and will be found to be quite fresh and fit for use. 



But air and water have a way of penetrating into all sorts of 

 places, so that in nature they are almost everywhere. Water can 

 slowly filter through even the hardest rocks, and since it con- 

 tains dissolved air, it causes the decay of animal or vegetable 



